Will these games ever see the light of day?

With Sony’s PlayStation 3 approaching its twilight years as a hardcore games machine and PSP barely continuing to chug along like a clapped-out old banger, PSU.com thought the time was ripe to cast a reflective glance back at some of the titles for both machines that failed to see the light of day. Yep, despite PS3 and PSP being six and eight-years-old respectively, some of their biggest games have yet to materialise. This hasn’t just been limited to Sony’s recent crop of platforms; as far back as we can remember, every generation has a number of major projects that are announced, run into road blocks and ultimately skip a generation or fail to arrive on shops at all.

Lamentably, both PS3 and PSP have had their fair share of promising-looking titles that have been touted as some of the biggest games on that format, but have still yet to show their face. Here’s a look at some of the games that we’re still twiddling our thumbs for as we ponder whether or not they’re ever going to see the light of day.

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AGENT

Rockstar’s PlayStation 3-exclusive Agent was first announced at E3 2009, and has been conspicuously absent from headlines ever since. Originally pegged for a 2010 release, no one seems to have a scoobies as to what’s happened to the game, or even what it looks like for that matter. Officially, it’s still in development, but aside from that, Rockstar is keeping its lips firmly sealed on the matter. It’s a pity too, as Agent sounds the business. Set in the Cold War during the 1970s, the game focuses on espionage and counter-intelligence; an ambitious-sounding project to say the least, but believe or not, that’s about all the info we’ve managed to garner over three years since its unveiling. The fact it’s a PS3 exclusive in this day and age – particularly when Rockstar’s crime juggernaut Grand Theft Auto has moved into multi-platform territory – is something of a surprise, and we wonder if this is still the case. With PS3 and 360 nearing the end of their hardcore gaming output before they are negated to family-friendly clearance shelves, Agent better arrive pretty sharpish – at this point, we reckon it’s gone to next-gen.

RESIDENT EVIL PORTABLE

Another E3 2009 heavy hitter that has yet to see the light of day, Resident Evil Portable was apparently tailored specifically for Sony’s ill-fated PSPgo, and like Agent was due in 2010. That, obviously, never happened, and we have literally heard zip on the title ever since. Even Capcom won’t comment on the matter. However, we’re pretty convinced the game ended up on 3DS as the admittedly brilliant RE: Revelations, though the fact we’ve yet to see a proper Resi title on a Sony handheld is quite frankly baffling. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see the game end up on PSP, though we can’t imagine Capcom not bringing the franchise to PS Vita at some point. The prospect of a full-on handheld Resi is nothing to turn your nose at; Revelations was totally mint, and given the graphical prowess of PS Vita, we could be in for quite a treat. Sadly, we’ve no evidence to suggest that Capcom is even working on a new RE game for Sony’s new pocket brick, but we think it’s highly unlikely they’d pass up on the opportunity. Sadly for PSP owners, that opportunity was never realised.

THE LAST GUARDIAN

Masterminded by Team ICO, The Last Guardian was formally revealed at E3 2009 and has made sporadic appearances at trade shows ever since. However, while we’ve been privy to a little more info for The Last Guardian than the likes of Agent, it doesn’t help that the project seems to be constantly plagued by development issues. Aside from various technical road bumps that seem to crop up every now and then, the boy-meets-griffin-beast adventure’s creator, Fumito Ueda, has departed Sony and is now working in a freelance capacity. We have to wonder if Sony was putting pressure on Ueda-san to finish the game due to its arduous development cycle, and this may have contributed to his decision to leave. And, while we are assured work continues on the game, it’s progressing at a snail’s pace, and has failed to show up at E3 since its announcement. Furthermore, no release date has been given, and even Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida couldn’t state in unequivocal terms if the game would definitely remain on PS3. That doesn’t exactly feel us with the joys of spring. At this point, a next-gen leap wouldn’t be out of the question, and some have even touted that Ueda’s vision for the project may just be too grand to bring to the screen. This won’t be here for a while, that’s for sure.

FINAL FANTASY VERSUS XIII

Square Enix’s MIA PS3-exclusive is quickly becoming the quintessential manifestation of the term vapourware. Announced a whopping six years ago at E3 2006, FF Versus XIII – an all-new entry in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series featuring airships, all-new characters and more – didn’t even enter full production until September 2011, and unsurprisingly has never attracted a release date. Questions have been raised over the years as to whether the game was even still exclusive to Sony’s black box or whether it had been canned outright, though each time Square Enix has reiterated its commitment to the project and its PS3-exclusivity. Nonetheless, if the game only entered full production in September last year, it’s entirely conceivably the Japanese giant has decided to overhaul the game for Sony’s next-generation home consoles, codenamed Orbis. At this point we’re starting to wonder just how many people are interested in the game; does Joe Public give a rat’s backside about the game? Probably not. However, the game still maintains keen interest from the hardcore Final Fantasy aficionado, and there’s the sense Versus XIII has a lot riding on it for reinstalling many gamers’ faith in the franchise following the controversial Final Fantasy XIII and its sequel. With spiralling development costs however, which are likely to continue into the next-gen race, we wonder if the game will retain its exclusivity to a Sony platform, whether that be PS3 or its successor.